Inside the Kitchen of Sukran Ornek

For the Roombeek Magazine, I met with Sukran Omek. She is the owner of a remodeled farm that houses a lunchroom in the middle of the newly built quarter Roombeek in Enschede. She has Turkish roots, her family comes from the seaport Mersin at the Mediterranean Sea. A city where cotton and citrus fruits are farmed. Every year she returns to visit her family and friends.

I’m sitting together with Sukran at her kitchen table and she explains to me how she prepared Karni yarik for tonights’ dinner. This is her husband’s favorite, but her children like it a lot as well. You can serve it with rice or flatbread (pide) and have a cold yogurt drink called cacik on the side.

Sukran learned this recipe from her mother and she will also pass it on to her daughter Melita. Sukran invited me to taste these delicious dishes she made and to share the recipes with you. We wish you a lot of fun making them!

Karni Yarik

Ingredients:

4 aubergines

3 peppers (red, green, yellow)

3 fresh tomatoes, cut into small cubes or 1 can of diced tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic

1-2 tsp dried mint

300 g minced meat (beef)

2 big onions, diced into small pieces

1 tbsp. salca (pepper mash, available in the Turkish supermarket)

a handful of Italian parsley, chopped

salt, pepper, ground chili flakes, caraway

sunflower oil

olive oil

kitchen towel

Preparation:

Cut each aubergine in half (lengthwise). Make a cut in the white “meat” of the aubergine across the whole length. Fry the aubergine-halves in a pan with sunflower oil on high temperature until turning brown. Turn around, fry the other side and remove from the pan afterward.

Cut each pepper into 8 parts. Deep-fry the pepper parts shortly in the sunflower oil (that you already used to fry the aubergines). Remove from the pan and let the oil drip off the aubergines and peppers on some paper towel.

Strain the sunflower oil. Pour the olive oil into the same pan and fry the chopped garlic and the diced tomatoes. Add the Italian parsley and the dried mint to the tomato sauce.

Take another pan and fry the minced meat until all the water and fat is removed. Add the onion and the salca (the mashed peppers). The whole will be quite dry and grainy. Add 1 tsp. salt to taste. Add pepper and caraway to your own taste. If you like it spicy, add some chili flakes.

Fill 4 of the aubergine-halves with the minced meat. You will use the other 4 halves to cover up the filled ones.

Take ¾ of the tomato sauce out of the pan and store in a bowl.

Now you put the filled aubergines in the pan with the tomato sauce. Spread the fried pieces of peppers and the rest of the tomato sauce across the aubergines. Cover the pan with a lid and let stew for about half an hour. Alternatively, you can put the dish in a casserole dish in the oven, but then it will dry out a bit. Adding some shredded cheese is also very tasty.

Afiyet olsun!

(Enjoy!)

Go Vegetarian!

The vegetarian version of this dish is called Imam Bayildi (it means: passed-out priest – since this is oh-so-delicious!).
Leave out the minced meat and add some other vegetables like carrot, corn or peas. It is also lovely to add some (feta)cheese. If you have any leftovers (which I doubt) you can enjoy them the next day on a sandwich for lunch.